


Better Now

by mythomagicallydelicious



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Jester's father, from ep 25, references the events of getting kidnapped but not graphically, spoilers for Episode 33 campaign 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-09
Updated: 2019-05-09
Packaged: 2020-02-28 04:57:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18749470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mythomagicallydelicious/pseuds/mythomagicallydelicious
Summary: Jester has a lot of information to process after seeing her mother again, but help comes in unexpected ways.





	Better Now

Jester laid in her old room that night, mind twisted up in knots. She tried doodling a picture of her head all twisted funny, like her horns tangled with her brain, but sketching wasn't bringing her any peace that night. She gave up her formal attempts at finding humor in her situation and let her hand wander as she closed her eyes, praying aloud.

"Okay Traveler, umm, this is like really, really big so if you can give any advice or help please I'd really appreciate it please." 

She prayed some more, but when she opened her eyes there was no sign of him. She remembered him telling her that didn't mean he wasn't there, but... his presence would have been an appreciated comfort, that night, honestly.

_**The Gentleman** might be her  **father!**_ That was pretty big! Pretty worth an appearance, in her opinion. Then again, so was getting kidnapped and bound and gagged and thrown in a cage and tortured--

_No._ She dropped her pencil and looked away from her sketchbook. She wasn't going to think about any of that right now. One thing at a time.

_Okay okay okay okay_ , she thought, getting back on track. _The Gentleman_. Her mom said maybe she got over-excited, earlier. There was more than one blue, sweaty man in the world. Right?

She picked up her pencil and turned the page, allowing it to wander as she tried to make sense of it.

But now that she was thinking on it---okay. The Gentleman fit pretty much all of the stories her mama had told her, technically. And technically, he had only said he was from the ocean, not that he'd stay there forever...

_Ugh_ \-- she dug her pencil into the paper and looked down.  _Oh._

She felt a different sadness well up in her. A melancholy hit her, unrelated to the strange revelation of who might be her father. Somehow her hands had sketched out the moon tarot card, and a hand almost clawed, holding it. Molly's card. Molly's hand. She felt a lump gather in her throat and she looks to the wall again.

Molly would have been intrigued with all of this, she thought. Just as swept up in the moment as the others, she was sure. Would have delighted in the "pictionary" contest Caduceus directed them into. Would have let the false animosity he held between himself and Beau go in favor of a slap on the shoulder and a shared incredulous look. She also thought he would have lifted her mood. Made some joke in infernal that only she could understand--and her mama, but her mama wouldn't mind. 

She knew Molly hadn't cared about knowing his parents, or about that whole missing part of his other life, but he'd known it was important to Jester. They had talked about it, once, on a watch they'd shared. Jester had told him more about the stories her mother had told her of her father, lost to the ocean. Molly had made a joke about Fjord probably knowing him, if he coughed seawater, how he must know another man of the ocean, right? It had made Jester laugh, and look over to him dreamily, wondering if Fjord could be a connection to her dad.

Molly would have sympathized with her, she thought. Even if he would have advised her to move on, live her own life, not go chasing after the life she might have had, knowing her father.

She could practically imagine his voice, his hands busy, shuffling his deck or playing with his coat, but his eyes trained on hers-"Maybe the Gentleman is your dad. Old Babenon wasn't around though, was he? Don't waste your time on someone who only wastes yours. He's not worth thinking on." He'd probably try and tell her fortune again, in his sneaky way. Beau had said he stacked the deck, but Jester didn't care. That didn't stop the magic from being real. And Mollymauk was for sure magical. He was magical, and mysterious, and he had been right all the way back when they first met, so Jester knew that she was right to trust all the readings he gave her in between. 

Leaving home, meeting the others, doing the job for the Baumbachs, stealing their mail because they were dicks--it all led to the Gentleman. Molly had been  _right_ in Trostenwald. She already had the clue that would lead her to him, she just didn't know how it would play out, or when she would know. 

Her mind continued drifting to Molly instead. Jester drew Molly's likenesses in her journal--his little self-satisfied smirk when he got the last word in against Beau. Laughing at an inside joke between Yasha and him. Twirling a silk flower and lacing it into his hair in Hupperdook. Him pointing and spouting ridiculous insults in Infernal, just to make Jester laugh because she was the only one who understood. He'd seemed so like what a teasing older brother might have been.

Maybe Molly would want her to move on from thinking of him, too, but she couldn't. Not when his words resounded so clearly in her ears, still. Not when she wanted his advice and presence so badly it  _hurt_. 

Besides, Molly was worth thinking about. And Jester felt better after imagining what he'd say. Wasn't that Mollymauk's whole thing? " _Leave a place better than you found it. Leave a smile, if you can, while you're at it. Or at least a good memory or two_." 

Jester folded her sketchbook shut, marking the page full of Mollys and tucking it under her pillow. She folded her hands and prayed into the dark room.

"Thank you, Traveler, for leading me to my new friends. Thank you especially for leading me to Molly. I love you and goodnight."

She fell asleep and had twisted dreams, but all throughout her mind was calmed by the steady presence of two men, one in a green cloak, the other in an outrageously gaudy one, keeping watch and pace as she dreamed. The echo of laughter keeping her dreams from turning to nightmares as the moon shined through her window onto her sleeping face.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I absolutely would have LOVED to see what Mollymauk's reactions to the whole "Gentleman MAY BE YOUR DAD?!?!" debacle because I have watched that scene about 20 times now and every time it cracks me up that Mr. Clay has intelligence of 8 and cannot make all the jumps, as a character, the others are going through in scene.
> 
> And since I never stop thinking about Mollymauk Tealeaf, I thought, I might as well write a fic with him!
> 
> Comments appreciated, this is my first Critical Role fic! Thanks for reading :D


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